5 things that make me smile : Rovaniemi/Lapland 2014

This year's christmas was snowing in Finland! 

I can't be more happier since last year we didn't get any of it (in here we called it "musta joulu"  lit. means black christmas). 

But we got a lot more of snow since we (me and husband) traveling to Rovaniemi - Lapland. It was -25 in there and it was my first time to go here, so it was exciting. 

We went to a *small version of ice hotel* and Santa claus village also (that they claimed it is the original Santa Claus). The entire trip took 3 days 2 night. I must admit it was too short! ;)

1. The scenery on the road
White, white, white everywhere! Everything are frozen solid also. We went with car and it took *only* 8-9 hours drive (ouch!my butt >_>).

2. This super cute - alaskan husky sled trip
They are so cute, fluffy and really friendly. I was hugging and petting almost all the dogs. I want to take them home! The ride was fun and super cold when they running really fast. I could felt a thousand needles prickling my face Ö_ö

*Fun fact - the guide said that they only use siberian husky and alaskan malamute usually just for advertising purposes...uhm..ok :p

3. The color of the skies was awesome
It was breathtaking seeing those skies changing color every time. And seeing the northern light in there was really nice experience. I could say that I unlocked one of my life achievement, yay!

Unfortunately I didn't catch the photo of aurora since it was hard...well next time :p

4. This trip with snowmobiles to the frozen forest
Not the most pleasant ride since it was super freezing cold, super bumpy ride since I was in the backseat :p

Nice experience driving around Lapland's frozen forest. Its almost dark at that time but the scenery and color still fabulous.

5. The speciality stuff from Lapland
Tried reindeer meat stew, I finally found the handmade Kuksa cup (Lappish wooden birch cup), We stayed at really nice cabin and I got my own reindeer's antler also* :p

*Reindeers shed their antlers occasionally, so there's no harm for retrieving these :)

5 simply heaven for me : 06122011

Today is the Finnish independence day so almost all the shops and public places closed. It's a nice experience also for seeing the first snow today. It still not huge snow, but it's still great to see all turns white here. My partner said it was quite warm and unusual this year since it should be already snowing more and more colder.

So, let's continue shall we to the list?

1. it's beginning to look like christmas, my first time seeing the real winter!well, the beginning of it. I really can't wait for more :D

2. heart-pattern-by-tires, i'm surprise when i saw this in the parking lot. It was made by the car tires accidentally. how cute is it? :D

3. lappish ( lapland's ) bread, or they call it rieska ; this is new for me. I think it looks like a indian pita bread or mexican tortilla. This was made from potato ( perunarieska ; peruna means potato ). It was really nice with the tomato-basil-shallots-salad i made. :D

4. game addict this month ; dungeon defenders, we can't stop playing this everyday! we even stayed overnight just to play this. I even got a dream about it quite many times, still playing this in my dream, OMG. It was fun that my partner is a *serious* gamer also like me. For all gamers out there, try this game for sure. It was super-awesome!

5. big-bad-(but tasty)salmon, this maybe sound exaggerating but this is my first time handling such a big salmon to clean and cook. It was awkward and puzzling, took quite time to do it but the end result are *tempting* so i need to bear with it...lol ;D